8/26

the girls invited me to a tea party on the floor last week. Kara took a few pictures afterward. most of the tea party was cleaned up by the time she did. Evangeline had some imaginary food.

They love her so much.

saturday was Ben's softball game for work. It's always fun to see everyone. Kara is getting so big, and brave.

Kiersten wanted to watch the game, even though Kara was too busy on the playground to come watch with us.

Ben hitting a double. I think he had a pretty good game from what I saw of it.

Another sleeping picture.

I decided to recover our dining chairs. We got these as a wedding gift, and the seats were getting pretty hard to get clean. So I just got some upholstery fabric on sale at JoAnn's. I used Ben's staple gun again, and this time, I even reloaded it all by myself. It only took me about 20 minutes to finally get the staples in correctly. It was more difficult because these chairs are solid wood, and the stools I did before were just foam and a thin board. Also, I couldn't use the drill because there was too long of a space to reach the screws. So I had to use the regular screw driver. It wasn't so bad getting the seats off, but reattatching them wasn't the easiest. The chair on the left is the after, and the right is the before.

I let the girls get out their art supplies to work on "projects" while I did the chairs. They love making arts and crafts.

after lunch they wanted to play outside. We didn't stay out long, because it was really hot.

they love turning on the sprinkler.

Kiersten got to put the final sticker on her potty chart last night. That meant she got to buy her very own leapster. We took her to toys r us after dinner. She picked out a green one, and a Ni Hao Kai Lan game to play with it. The best part was that at the store she said she needed to go potty, and she went on the big toilet with no training seat. She is getting to be so big.

8/21/09

Last friday I had a headache all day, so when Ben got home, he fed the girls dinner so I could take a nap. I felt much better after, but the problem was, I couldn't fall asleep later that night. Ben and the girls were asleep, and I just wasn't tired, so I went downstairs for some cleaning time. A few weeks ago, glidden was giving away free paint, so I had ordered some paint that I thought would be good for our master bathroom. When I got it, I thought it might actually be better for the kitchen, but I hadn't quite decided. So as I was cleaning, I came across the can of paint. I decided to tape off the kitchen, just to see how much work it would be. It didn't take long at all, so I decided to go ahead and paint. I'm glad I used it for the kitchen and not the bathroom. There is a lot less wall space than I realized because of cupboards and appliances. I stayed up til 3:00 painting, then decided to take a break, but I fell asleep on the couch. Ben woke up at 7:30, and started looking for me. He was surprised to find me downstairs on the couch with the tv on and the kitchen painted green! I admit it was kinda random, but I like how it turned out. I hadn't finished above the cabinets, but it was mostly done. We had to hurry and start getting ourselves and the girls ready for Ben's fidelity softball game in Samammish. It was supposed to start at 10, but due to traffic, and a detour, we arrived at 11. Surprisingly, we were some of the first people there. By noon, most everyone had arrived and the game started. It was a combo softball game/barbeque with the Tukwila, Seattle, and Bellevue branches. It was fun to see everyone from Seattle again. I haven't seen some of those people in a really long time. It was also fun to see everyone else too. I didn't watch much of the game, but I still had fun playing with all the little kids that were there! Of course Kara made friends with all of them. As soon as that was finished, we headed over to a birthday party for Nathan and Sara's son, Ethan, who was turning 7. It was also at a park, so that was a pretty long day for us, and a fun day for the girls. We stopped at costco first for some stuff, and I waited in the car because Kiersten was sleeping. Ben and Kara came out with a new book for Kiersten, and flowers for me. Ben said Kara had insisted on getting them for me. Here is a picture of her smelling them. The birthday party was really fun. The kids all shot nerf guns at each other, and then they had a treasure hunt. They went all over the park until they finally found the treasure. Kiersten even had a goodie bag in the treasure, even though she didn't participate with the hunt. After the party, we came home and just crashed. I guess we are getting pretty old.
The next day, I decided to do as much cleaning as possible, and asked Ben if he could take the girls somewhere fun for 2 or 3 hours. He decided it would be a good day to visit his brother, Jason. He didn't want to drive all the way to Portland, so I think they met up about half and hour north of there. Here are a couple pictures.

It worked out well for me that they ended up being gone for more than 5 hours. I was really able to get a lot done. I got to a lot of those things, that don't need to be done too often, but still need to be done. Things like windows, washing walls, disinfecting lightswitches and doorknobs, that usually get sent to the bottom of my to-do list. They got to come home to an especially clean house, and then Ben helped me finish up the painting, and we all went to bed exhausted.

This week, Ben has had a lot going on at work. Tuesday their big boss came to town, and that was a late night, I think that was the night they did an event with clients until after 9:00. So the girls were in bed asleep by the time he got home. Then wednesday was his gym night after work, so he got home a bit late. Last night, the branch had a bowling get-together, which he ended up leaving early, but still didn't get home in time to have dinner with us. We have all felt like this has been a very long week. As for the girls and I, we have been up to the usual; going to they gym, grocery shopping, trips to the dry cleaner, doing laundry, and housework. And of course plenty of play time, and just goofing around. Yesterday, Kara woke up from a nap, convinced that Daddy had, "gone away in a balloon". she was really upset, and I tried to let her call him to see that he was okay, but we couldn't get him, so that was a few hours worth of drama for her. She was glad when he finally arrived home, and was okay. This weekend, we plan on going nowhere, and just relaxing around here all together.